Women's basketball: CU Buffs' Rachel Hargis shines with seven blocks

Rachel Hargis couldn't hide her smile on Friday night, and the Colorado junior didn't even attempt to try.

After playing one of the best games of her career, she deserved to be proud. Hargis scored seven points -- making three of her four shots -- but made her best impression on defense, posting a career-high seven blocks. She came up just one shy of the school record for blocks in a game.

"I didn't realize I had seven blocks," she said, smiling as she looked at the final box score.

She had three of them in the first five minutes of CU's 70-66 win against No. 8 Louisville. That set the tone defensively for the Buffs' first victory over a top-10 team in more than a decade.

"Rachel was ready," head coach Linda Lappe said. "We knew it was going to be a war on the block. Rachel thrives any time I tell her it's going to be a war on the block. She gets excited about that. She's a physical player, she loves physical contact and she's strong and she's athletic."

Louisville has very good players on the post, including Sheronne Vails and Shawnta' Dyer. Vails was shut out offensively, with Hargis providing much of the support in the paint.

"We knew it was going to be a physical, tough game on the inside from the beginning, and I like physicality," said Hargis, whose previous career best was four blocks. She had five all season coming in. "I was ready to go and I don't know, I just knew that if we were going to win, I had to do my job.

Advertisement

"

She committed just three fouls in her 22 minutes, showing her maturity. In the past, foul trouble might have kept her out of a game like this.

"The experience has definitely helped me a lot in knowing when to be smart and when to go for those blocks," she said. "I've done a lot better job of not getting in foul trouble."

Shutting down Schimmel

Louisville's top scorer is Shoni Schimmel, with 12.1 points per game coming in, and 14.4 points per game for her career.

Schimmel had a rough night against the Buffs' defense, led by Brittany Wilson. Schimmel was 2-for-12 from the floor and scored just four points. She didn't have any points during the first 37:30 of the game and finished 0-for-7 from 3-point range.

"It was just a great thing to be able to shut her down and not let her score at all the first half and then not to score until the last four minutes of the game," Wilson said.

Teammate Chucky Jeffery said, "That was probably one of the best defensive games I've seen Brittany play."

Sborov sits

Sophomore guard Jasmine Sborov has been a regular starter for the Buffs this season, but sat out Friday's game with a heart issue.

"We don't think it's a big deal, but just getting some additional tests on a condition she's had for a little while and she's played through but seems to keep getting worse," Lappe said. "You don't want to mess around with the heart."

Sborov had started the previous six games. She is averaging 5.1 points and 4.8 rebounds per game this season.

Reaching the rankings?

Last week, CU received one Top-25 vote in the Associated Press poll. Beating the No. 8 team in the country could be enough to get them into the rankings this week.

CU is one of just 11 undefeated teams in the country. Just four of those 11 have defeated a top-10 team: No. 1 Stanford, No. 2 Connecticut, No. 4 Duke and Colorado.

"I think it's a great thing for the Pac-12," Hargis said of CU potentially being in the rankings. "Four Pac-12 schools being ranked, that would be awesome. That would get our NCAA bids up even more, so that's a big deal for us. It puts in a good position."

CU improved to 3-5 against ranked teams in Lappe's three seasons with the Buffs. ... The Buffs snapped a 23-game losing streak against top-10 teams and improved to 11-42 against teams ranked in the top 8. ... CU is now 699-450 in program history. ... CU is 9-0 for just the fourth time in program history, but for the second year in a row. ... Jeffery became the 16th player in program history with 1,300 points. She has 1,317 for her career. ... Arielle Roberson has scored in double figures in all nine of her games so far. Tracy Tripp holds the school record with 10 double figure games to start a career.

Weight loss journey culminates in long awaited state titleDENVER — Mason Watt's story is inspirational.
He took it upon himself to change himself, both body — losing over 100 pounds — and mind. Full Story

The Boulder alt-country band gives its EPs names such as Death and Resurrection, and its songs bear the mark of hard truths and sin. But the punk energy behind the playing, and the sense that it's all in good fun, make it OK to dance to a song like "Death." Full Story